The subject matter disclosed herein relates to inspection and image acquisition and, more particularly, to embodiments of an apparatus and a system that can generate digital images of an asset located in environments at high pressures, e.g., pressures consistent with extreme depths below sea level.
Inspection of assets including, for example, pipes and pipelines that reside underwater, is important to identify areas of the asset that may require pre-emptive maintenance or that represent a risk of failure. However, in many cases, these assets are found in environments that are not hospitable for humans to perform visual inspection. Nor could visual inspection, whether by human or remote visual inspection equipment, even ascertain defects, flaws, and other anomalies that are the source of failure in the asset because such anomalies may occur beneath the exterior surface of the asset. Thus, proper inspection may require use of special inspection equipment that can provide a view, or image, of the internal structure and health of the asset.
Examples of this special inspection equipment include conventional x-ray and ultrasonic devices, both of which can penetrate the exterior surface of the asset to generate an image of the internal structure of the asset. However, neither of these types of devices are particularly well suited to inspect deepwater assets. To use ultrasonic devices for inspecting pipes underwater, for example, the ultrasonic device must be positioned proximate, and often in contact with, the surface of the asset. Unfortunately, these surfaces are often covered by protective coverings (e.g., insulation) or are generally not readily available without removal and/or manipulation of the protective covering from the area on which the ultrasonic device is to contact.
X-ray devices, on the other hand, can penetrate through the protective coverings as well as any peripheral structure to capture images of the internal structure of the asset. However, most conventional x-ray devices require radiation to penetrate the asset and to expose imaging plates. These imaging plates must then traverse the ocean depths from the deepwater pipeline to the surface where the imaging plate can be viewed. This procedure is neither cost effective nor efficient, let alone practical when x-ray devices are used in connection with assets that are located many miles below the ocean surface.
Another example of inspection equipment utilizes digital radiography to generate images of the asset. These digital radiography imaging systems generally use x-ray radiation to interact with digital flat panel x-ray detectors. In response to the radiation, the x-ray detectors generate digital signals that can traverse conduits from the asset to the ocean surface where digital processing equipment generates digital images. Such digital systems can provide higher image quality and improve processing time, image storage, and image transfer over previously known x-ray film techniques that expose conventional plates. However, digital radiography inspection systems may not be readily equipped for, nor can they operate at, the pressures that occur deep under the ocean surface where the deepwater assets are found. These pressures can, for example, damage equipment and/or induce anomalies in the digital images that degrade the overall image quality of digital radiography imaging systems.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.